Innovation News

​Washington, DC ― Peter Sullivan reports in The Hill that Vice President Biden met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday to discuss a medical innovation bill that could be the path to funding for his “moonshot” to cure cancer.

Biden met with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), ranking member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who are the leaders of the House’s 21st Century Cures effort.

Also at the meeting were Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

​Alexander and Murray are currently negotiating a companion to the House-passed 21st Century Cures bill. The Senate bill is expected to include new funding for medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as the House bill also did, some of which could go toward Biden's initiative.

The House passed its bill on July 10, 2015, but the Senate effort is taking longer than expected. Lawmakers are hoping to use the push for a cancer cure, along with President Obama’s “precision medicine” initiative to individualize treatments, to jumpstart the Senate effort.

Upton, Pallone and DeGette said in a joint statement: “Today’s meeting with Vice President Biden and Senate leaders was positive and productive. The #Path2Cures connects both the White House and U.S. Capitol, and we welcome the vice president’s enthusiastic participation in this bipartisan effort.”

“We are seeing a tremendous opportunity for Cures, with our legislative efforts coupled with the ‘moonshot’ and the administration’s Precision Medicine Initiative, there is no question that 21st Century Cures is the right vehicle to get this done,” the lawmakers added. “We will all continue working together — House, Senate and White House — until we are successful in delivering #CuresNow for patients across America.”